The Happy Hearthstone Podcast

Hello! Rob May is on the show this week Topic: Podcasts and Streams! Reasons to be happy this week News: Normal and Wild Modes (follow-up interview)! Red Bull Team Brawl! Why We Love Streams Over-the-shoulder experience Free teaching/coaching Smaller streams read chat more often and provide insight into questions live as the game develops or as a deck may be built on stream. Deck Doctor: Zalae and Firebat serving community with small tips to help players. Livestreams for Getting Better at Arena Hafu Kripparian Ratsmah GuardsmanBob ADWCTA Commentated Tournaments like Redbull Team Brawl Livestreams for Getting Better at Ranked Trump StrifeCro Savjz Kibler Zetalot Firebat Thijs Commentated Tournaments like ESL Why We Love Podcasts Rob wrote an article about this! Join a community Learn in a more directed way Make your commutes fun! It’s good to listen to more than one Podcasts for Getting Better at Arena Lightforge Podcasts for Getting Better at Ranked The Golden Wisp: For players interested in the very highest level of play, in both Ranked and tournaments. Velen’s Chosen: For players on a budget that really want to get to be competitive in Ranked. HearthCoach: For players who are eagerly trying to fight their way into Legend Ranked. Podcasts for New Players Hearthaholics: For players interested in learning the fundamentals of the game and gaining confidence one step at a time. As a perk, these are timeless episodes that can be used like an audiobook. Their website walks you through the order to listen. Legend of the Innkeeper: For new and casual players who want to learn how to get better in a fun and enthusiastic environment. Everything from deckbuilding to beating the PVE Adventure content. Happy Hearthstone: This is us! For players who want to find new decks to try, learn the basics of strategy, and hear from new hosts from the community every episode to share different perspectives and expertise. Podcasts for News and Esports The Angry Chicken: For players looking for an extremely polished and well-made show with entertaining hosts that covers all the news in the Hearthstone scene. Well Met!: For players who like strategy mixed in with their news. This show covers a lot of topics to make sure you’re keeping up with everything from casual play to pro tournaments. Value Town: For players who want to hear from pro players and high-profile streamers directly. They do Q&As regularly, and focus on the higher-level of play. Coin Concede: For players who like a broad range of topics, Coin Concede tries to cover everything from PVE to high-level pro play. Great coverage of the esports scene. Top Deck Kings: For players who like spontaneity and personality mixed in with their news discussion and meta analysis. They’ve played Hearthstone matches with commentary during the show, and even devoted an entire recent episode about the Super Bowl. 1600 Dust: For players who like a lot of strategy mixed in with their news. Their recent campaign for #KnowYourRole2016 is breaking down specific game elements in each episode. Hosts are entertaining and keep it fun. Hero Power: For players who like hands-on learning alongside their news. The entertaining hosts host two segments a week, one is audio and focuses on news and deckbuilding. The other is a live play segment, where they play an entire match with a different class, walking you through the thought process and helping you get better at it. Both the audio and video content can be found on their site. Podcasts for Casual Discussion All of these shoes have great discussions, focused on being entertaining and building a community instead of the academic analysis and walkthrough strategy guides that other shows sometimes offer. They’re all great, so we recommend you try all of these out and find the personalities and style that work best for you! The Unstable Portal A Worthy Opponent Raid Warning Whirlwind Walk to Work Drawing Dead Hearth of the Cards Hearthcore Death Rattle Crew Innervated Podcasts to Find other Podcasts (Podcast-ception!) Realm Maintenance: Rho schedules guests on his show for WoW, Starcraft, Heroes, Hearthstone, Overwatch, and Diablo every week. Ways to Support Your Favorite Podcasts and Streams Leave them 5-star iTunes reviews Support them financially (Patreon, Paypal, etc.) E-mail the shows for topics, ways to help, or questions Listen to the show all the way through Follow them on Twitter (#1 social media used by Hearthstone people) Talk about and share the show with friends! Community Question: Best way to keep up with the meta on limited time? iTunes Reviews Donations None Card of the Week Farewell Contact Rob May on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook! Check out Rob’s podcast, Velen’s Chosen on iTunes, their website, or Facebook What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show

Hello! Jake is on the show this week Topic: Deck battle! Reasons to be happy this week News: Designer Ben Brode’s videos What is a Deck Battle? Once a month, a guest host brings their favorite deck onto the show to battle the current reigning champion deck for control of the Happy Hearthstone Deck Battle Throne! If the challenger wins the best-of-3 series, their deck becomes the new Reigning Champion Deck and will fight off future challengers until it loses, or until it’s earned its place in the Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame! View the Deck Battle Archive + The Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame Defending Deck: Andrew’s Warlock Demon Zoo deck has reigned supreme for 7 months, and has beaten 5 decks before this episode. Challenger Deck: Jake Crawford’s Warlock Portal Deck starts slow and builds up to overload you with massive minions all at once. The Deck Creatures 1x Zombie Chow 1x Ironbeak Owl 2x Sunfury Protector 1x Big Game Hunter 2x Earthen Ring Farseer 2x Imp Gang Boss 1x Mind Control Tech 1x Defender of Argus 2x Piloted Shredder 2x Summoning Portal 1x Antique Healbot 1x Loatheb 1x Sludge Belcher 1x Emperor Thaurissan 1x Sylvanas Windrunner 1x Kel’Thuzad 2x Sea Giant 2x Molten Giant Spells 1x Darkbomb 1x Hellfire 1x Imp-losion 1x Shadowflame 1x Siphon Soul Sideboard In case you don’t have some of the ideal cards, here are some quality back ups and alterations you can make that keep with the same theme and strengths of the deck. Loot Hoarder Ancient Watcher Eerie Statue Enhanc-o Mechano Faceless Manipulator Mountain Giant The Duel Unfortunately, technical issues devoured the livestream footage of the deck battle and dust bowl this week. I’m very sorry! It was a 2-0 win for Andrew’s Warlock deck. The first match was pretty one-sided, and the second match was very close. On a related note, if anyone has a recommendation for a good mixer that doesn’t produce apocalypse-level distortion effects, please let me know  Community Question: None this week! iTunes Reviews Donations Jake Crawford: 7 card packs Card of the Week Farewell Contact Jake Crawford on Twitter What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show DECK GUIDE: Jake brought back some old-school powerhouse cards in his Warlock Summoning Portal deck on the show this week. Let’s take a look at each card in the deck and talk about why it’s there and how to use it. Note from Josh: The rest of this article was written by Jake. Thanks! The Portals Warlock This is deck I have been trying to make work since the Beta release of Hearthstone. Decks like Handlock have always interested me, which essentially use your opponent’s strategy against them to discount your cards, like Molten Giants. Also, I was inspired by athletes like Muhammad Ali, who win by absorbing the opponents early offense, with their smart efficient defense, in order to swing the game in their favor late. This deck normally shines against early aggression decks, and is not super effective against other control decks. The key strategy is to withstand the early offense to drop lots of Giants and other minions late in the game. With the help of heals and mana discount synergies, this deck has potential to contend with most constructed decks. I love playing this deck because almost every time it catches my opponent off guard, which is hard to do in Hearthstone these days. Let’s get straight into the cards I used in my deck for the mighty showdown with Josh. You can find a completely plain deck list on the podcast episode. Here, I’ll provide additional commentary where I feel it’s helpful or necessary. Creatures Zombie Chow Chow is used as early game board presence, since your opponents health is relatively unimportant to the deck’s overall strategy, giving your opponent 5 health after Chow dies, is not very important. Hold on to him in the mulligan phase if it shows up. Ironbeak Owl A great 1-of, silence can come in handy in the era of rampant inspire and deathrattle effects. This owl could save the bacon in certain matchups. Sunfury Protector Helps you build walls out of your Giants. Big Game Hunter Dr. Boom Hunter. I try to keep one copy of BGH in any control type deck. Super efficient clear of a big threat, also put a body on the border, helping to discount the cost of Sea Giants. Earthen Ring Farseer The drawback to the Warlock’s hero power is losing 2 health per use. This 3/3 body is packed with another spell-like effect of healing. Imp Gang Boss This card is one of the most solid minions, in terms of pure value, exclusively available to the Warlock class. Use this card to squelch early pressure, and keep popping out those imps, if possible. This works well for the “bodies on the board” strategy needed to discount the Sea Giants. Mind Control Tech Useful against decks that flood the board early. I find this card can help swing momentum in your favor, more times than it does not. Combo this with Sunfury Protector or Defender of Argus in between MCT and the minion you stole, for a quick taunt wall Defender of Argus The +1/+1 added to adjacent friendly minions can help with trading or turning a giant into a taunt wall. Piloted Shredder In my opinion, one of the strongest minions to ever be released. Shredders are very helpful for keeping bodies on the board in order to reducing Sea Giants cost, as well as giving something for Sunfury or Argus to taunt. Summoning Portal The lynch pin to this deck’s strategy. The ability to instantly discount the minions in your hand, as well Antique Healbot Another spell-like healing effect that can be severely discounted in combination with Summoning Portal and Emperor Thaurissan Loatheb Loatheb is not a key card in this deck’s strategy, but can help to secure a win in a control matchup. If you have a bunch of threats on the board, and enough damage to finish the opponent of next turn, dropping Loatheb can make your opponent’s removals impossible to play. Feel free to sub out this card, with the list of suggested additions. Sludge Belcher One of my favorite minions to be released in the Curse of Naxxramus Adventure. The Belcher was released at time when Hearthstone’s ladder was dominated by aggro Hunters and Zoo Warlock’s. If it’s not silenced, this taunt forces your opponent to deal with it twice. The total combo of 7 health between 2 bodies, effectively saving your Warlock a minimum of 7 damage. Emperor Thaurissan A key part of this deck is discounting the mana cost of the cards in your hand. Sylvanas Windrunner Sylvanas gives you some flexiblity on how to use her. A great target for shadowflame. Sylvanas’s give Kel Thuzad I wouldn’t say this is key card to the overall strategy, but can really switch momentum in your favor. Trade in your minions to clear the opponent’s board and drop KT, raise the dead and emote ‘oops’ [Editor’s Note: Emoting ‘oops’ like this will make Josh hate you forever.] Sea Giant Key card to this deck’s strategy. Whether it is your or the opponent flooding the board, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a discount on this card. Drop a Summoning Portal and this giant will be discounted by 3. Remember this minion is possible to be played for 0. Molten Giant Another key card to the strategy of this deck. Also possible to be played for zero. Both Giants are targets for Shadowflame, for board clears if the situation calls for it. Spells Darkbomb Early board control spell. Hold on to this one if it shows up during the mulligan phase. Hellfire Effective board clear against opponents that flood the board with lots of low health minions. You may even be able to combo this card with a discounted Molten Giant in the same turn. Imp-losion This spell synergizes well with Sea Giants. It can help clear an opposing minion, while putting bodies in play for you. Shadowflame One of Warlock’s most flexible spells. It plays into their theme of ‘power with consequence’. You have to sacrifice a minion to do damage to all enemy minions. This combined with any of the Giants is likely to clear whatever minions your opponent has on the other side of the board. Siphon Soul Helps extend your survivability, keep it in your back pocket for any big threats your opponent might drop in the late game. Possible Additions Like I mentioned earlier, the deck list is pretty specific because the deck revolves around playing Summoning Portals and creating a huge swing turn with discounted cards. That being said, there are a few cards you can swap in until you get the stuff you need.Loot Hoarder To increase your number of early drops. More cards in hand for Emperor Thaurissan to discount is always good. Ancient Watcher You can use this a silence target and then it can attack. Also use this as a taunt target or fodder for shadowflame. Eerie Statue Include for the same reason as Ancient Watcher Enhanc-o Mechano Drop a bunch of Giants and then the Mechano, you have. A good chance 1 of them turns in a taunt. Faceless Manipulator Super flexible per your situation. You can copy a Summoning Portal or one of your Giants. Mountain Giant Another Giant threat might be too much but you usually have a lot of cards in your hand, so you could get this discounted as well. Final Thoughts In conclusion, this deck might still be missing a few cards to make it work consistently but it is still really fun to play with. It requires a little bit of extra thinking, when calculating costs and discounts, but dropping a Summoning Portal never felt so right. I hope one day to see a Summoning Portal deck in a professional tournament.

Hello! Scott is on the show this week Topic: League of Explorers Review! Reasons to be happy this week News: Happy Winter Veil The Review Scale What we’re reviewing: Arena Score = The value of this card while drafting in Arena. Constructed = The value of this card when crafting the type of constructed deck that most wants this card. How the score works: 0 = Awful, unplayable (Example: Sacrificial Pact, Poison Seeds) 1 = Underpowered, but it could work out (Example: Naturalize, Divine Spirit, Corruption) 2 = Acceptable backup plan or niche filler (Example: Crazed Alchemist, Emperor Cobra) 3 = Solid value (Example: Chillwind Yeti) 4 = Great, with lots of upside (Example: Animal Companion, Knife Juggler) 5 = So good you always have to play it (Example: Dr. Boom) Druid Cards Raven Idol Josh says: Love the flexibility here. Should always be happy to draw this card. Scott says: Sort of like Tracking, but (true to Druid form) with an added layer of choice. Especially strong in Arena where deck synergy and card quality are much lower. Arena Score: 4 Constructed Score: 3 Mounted Raptor Josh says: I’m not really sold on this yet. The very best case, you’re paying 1 mana to summon a random 1-cost minion. But even then you’re pairing that cost with playing a regular bloodfen raptor. Underwhelming compared to the likes of Knife Juggler. Scott says: It’s a beast, which is nice. It’s like a beast version of Harvest Golem, just slightly less predictable. Arena Score: 3 Constructed Score: 3 Jungle Moonkin Josh says: Weird card that excels in super-specific situations. I just don’t see a ton of opportunity to get consistent value in it. Scott says: Another beast! Though I’m not sure how many Beast Druids care about spellpower, and I’m not sure how many people who care about spellpower want their opponents to have it. Works especially well with Swipe. Arena Score: 2 Constructed Score: 2 Hunter Cards Explorer’s Hat Scott says: I’m not sure if I should, but I really like this card. It’s a mana sink for sure, with more mana wasted the more you cast it. Yet I only cast it when I had mana to spare, or when it would make a difference. 2 mana is often well worth letting a minion survive a trade, or buffing a taunted minion. I view this like a reusable hero power baked into a card. Also can combo well with Lock ‘N Load, especially if you can cast multiple times in one turn. Josh says: Pure fun. I’ve had it get out of control with some copying effects, but doesn’t seem strong enough to really define a deck type. Arena Score: 3 Constructed Score: 3 Dart Trap Scott says: Would be good in a Hunter deck if you can reliably hit face, but a Paladin or Shaman hero power would always have at least a 50% chance to hit a weenie. Generally not worth it. Josh says: Yeah, super hard sell for a one-time effect that could do nothing more than ping a token. Would love to see a similar (weaker effect) on a minion, though. Arena Score: 1 Constructed Score: 1 Desert Camel Scott says: Not bad. Fine stats, and a good target for a Houndmaster. Not all opponents have 1-cost minions, and you’ll get to control what you draw. Timber Wolf or Webspinner are your two most obvious targets for now, though Injured Kvaldir(!), Leper Gnome, or Worgen Infiltrator are decent choices too. In arena, you’ll have to make sure you have at least a couple 1-cost minions in your deck. Josh says: Yeah, some fun opportunities for shenanigans. This can give a ton of value on board presence with the right 1-drops in your deck. Arena Score: 2 Constructed Score: 2 Mage Cards Forgotten Torch Josh says: Feels great in freeze and spell-damage decks. Great surprise plays if your opponent forgets about it and is only counting your Fireballs. Scott says: In exchange for paying for an overpriced spell up front, you get a underpriced spell later on. Maybe. Good in a deck that wants lots of spells and direct damage, and that expects a longer game. Arena Score: 4 Constructed Score: 4 Animated Armor Josh says: I see a 4 cost 4/4 with taunt. That’s not awful, but pretty unimpressive compared to a 5-cost Sludge Belcher. If this came on a class that had cheap weapons, I’d love it. Mage has a very hard time getting value out of it the turn it’s played, so I’m less interested. Scott says: Seems to go well in a Freeze Mage deck, as it’s another way to mitigate damage. This guy will almost always be a lightning rod as soon as he appears. Can be especially good against Hunters if you can keep the board clear, as it halves their hero ability. In practice, I don’t expect him to prevent much damage, but will often disrupt your opponent’s plans. Arena Score: 3 Constructed Score: 2 Ethereal Conjurer Josh says: At face value, I’m super wary of this card. Expensive, trades with a 2-cost minion and no guarantee on spell quality. But mage has a lot of great spells, and a freeze deck loves when things trade with their minions. So I could see it working okay there. Scott says: You’re paying a 1-mana premium (plus some badly-balanced stats) for an above-average mage spell, which seems like a good deal. And if you’re able to keep the board tidy, he might even get a chance to punch face once or twice, turning that stat balance to your advantage. Arena Score: 4 Constructed Score: 3 Paladin Cards Sacred Trial Scott says: Kills Dr. Boom (if they had at least one other minion on the board.) Not sure it’ll be worth it in most situations, but Secrets Paladin will probably want it. Josh says: I would NEVER have guessed that it kills Dr. Boom in that situation. That seems like a bug. I don’t see anything else redeeming here. Arena Score: 1 Constructed Score: 1 Keeper of Uldaman Scott says: A neat spell that can be used on either player’s minions to good effect. Luckily it’s in Paladin where you can always give +2/+2 to a recruit, which is a great deal. The versatility of bringing down a big baddie is just a bonus. Gets better later in the game, so never keep it on a mulligan. A true MVP, and likely the best card in the set for raw value and versatility. Josh says: Scott said it all. Great value, great versatility. This is a staple in midrange paladin. Arena Score: 5 Constructed Score: 5 Anyfin Can Happen Scott says: What is this i don’t even. No. Unless…. No. Josh says: Blizzard trolling murloc players, just like they troll the rest of the playerbase. Arena Score: 0 Constructed Score: 3 Priest Cards Museum Curator Josh says: Love this card, and it doesn’t need to be in a Deathrattle deck for the card you draw to be worth it. Cheap play with high impact battlecry is begging for a Brann Bronzebeard combo. Scott says: If you play this guy, I hope you like Dark Cultist, because it’s the only Priest card with Deathrattle. (Class cards have a 4x probability of being chosen.) The good news is that there are lots of good Legendary choices: Cairne Bloodhoof, Sylvanas, Sludge Belcher, and all 3 shredder types. Overall card quality for this Discover type is high. Unfortunately the card itself is low-impact, and in Constructed why would you put a sub-par card in your deck that will still probably give you an inferior card to what you could have just put in your deck in the first place? Arena Score: 4 Constructed Score: 3 Excavated Evil Josh says: Yes, there are combos that can get big value out of this. But even I’m not a big enough sucker to fall for them. You need a hyper late-game heal priest deck (equivalent of freeze mage style) to make this work, and Priest just can’t support that right now. Scott says: Not sure why I’d want this. Maybe follow this up with Circle of Healing or Holy Nova for tons of healing triggers? I’ll file this with Hellfire in my “unused” folder. Arena Score: 1 Constructed Score: 1 Entomb Josh says: Awesome anti-deathrattle card, but Silence can remove those too, so you’re paying for the premium of combining it with a kill effect. I don’t put any value into the draw, and priest already has a lot of great removal tools. Scott says: It’s a more expensive Assassinate that prevents a deathrattle trigger. Having a chance to draw the card yourself later is novel, but it shouldn’t really be better than anything already in your own deck, so will it help or hurt that draw? Most useful in a slow control deck where you’re holding it to target their biggest minion. Arena Score: 3 Constructed Score: 3 Rogue Cards Pit Snake Scott says: Not bad, except for its weakness against Druids, Mages, Rogues, and even Paladins. And small minions. And AoE. Hmm, I guess it is bad. Josh says: Yeah, hero powers make all 1-health minions a huge liability. It’ll force them to hero power, but that’s not a big enough advantage to warrant throwing away a card. Arena Score: 2 Constructed Score: 1 Unearthed Raptor Scott says: Lots of fun targets for this guy. Nerubian Egg, Shredders, Anubisath Sentinels, and Sylvanas make especially good targets. Keep in mind the ability is basically free and tacked on a Spider Tank, so there’s not really any downside. Josh says: Yeah, the normal mana cost on this guy is what really sold me. The floor is high and the ceiling in best-case scenarios (3 mana for 7/8 stats!) is outrageous. There are so many good cards that you want to run anyways that happen to have deathrattle effects worth stealing. Arena Score: 4 Constructed Score: 5 Tomb Pillager Scott says: Slightly sub-optimal stat balance, but a decent deathrattle ability. Coins are worth more than half of a Innervate when you factor in their combo-triggering ability. Josh says: Yeah, fits in really well with control rogues, where weapons + poison give you easy answers for things like Piloted Shredders that might show up to trade with it. Arena Score: 4 Constructed Score: 4 Shaman Cards Tunnel Trogg Josh says: This looks like the card Overload decks needed to stabilize and see some real play. You have to play this early, but when you do, it’s a big threat looming over your opponent that’ll make them scramble. Scott says: Shaman’s version of Mana Wyrm, and even better in the right deck. It can grow multiple times from a single card, and can trigger from many minions as well as spells. Won’t be as good in Arena where you can’t control your draws. Live the Neptulon dream! Arena Score: 2 Constructed Score: 4 Rumbling Elemental Josh says: This dude loves the number 2! Interesting building block for a battlecry deck, but I think it’s probably best in a control deck that already has lots of battlecry effects. I wouldn’t add new cards to try to combo it. Scott says: Stats are balanced for survivability, which will help it fire more often. Will be especially good with Brann Bronzebeard. Some of Shaman’s best units have Battlecry. Arena Score: 3 Constructed Score: 4 Everyfin is Awesome Josh says: Cool finisher for a shaman swarm deck. It’s important to note that the effect is permanent and hits all minions, so you can play it murloc-less if you’re desperate. Scott says: Like Bloodlust, but more expensive and adds toughness. Gets good with murlocs, but who plays murlocs? Might be worth playing with a Neptulon. Arena Score: 2 Constructed Score: 4 Warlock Cards Reliquary Seeker Scott says: It’s a huge payoff if you can swing it, but 6 other minions is a tall order. Implosion will certainly help, as will cards like Wobbling Runts. Not likely to ever fire in Arena. Josh says: If Master of Ceremonies couldn’t get traction with this sort of effect last set, there’s no way this works. Arena Score: 1 Constructed Score: 3 Dark Peddler Scott says: A card built for Floodlock decks, and does help out Reliquary Seeker a little. Discovering the 1-cost card is nice, as there are a few with good Battlecry effects you don’t want to miss out on. Josh says: Consistent 2-drops have been hard to find for Warlocks. I love this card, and there are enough great 1-drop cards that you should almost always get something you’re happy with. Arena Score: 3 Constructed Score: 4 Curse of Rafaam Scott says: This one’s hard to evaluate. You spend 2 mana and a card to make them take 2 damage and need to spend 2 mana. It’s possible to get more damage over time, but usually they will just cast it next turn. Either way — the opponent will make the choice that’s best for them. Since you equal out on mana, it doesn’t seem worth a card to do 2 damage. Josh says: The key, like you’ve said before, is that your opponent gets to make the choice of whether to cast or keep it. It could be an interesting stall tactic when you already have board control, but that’s tough to rely on. Arena Score: 1 Constructed Score: 1 Warrior Cards Cursed Blade Josh says: 2 is just such a bad damage number on a weapon. I would always prefer to play my 3/2 for 2 weapon, and Warrior already has enough weapons in the deck. Scott says: If for some reason you want to die quickly, this is the card for you! Might be worth casting if you just brought out a minion you really want to keep, as your opponent has to choose one or the other. Also seems better if you’re investing heavily in Taunt while expecting to punch face with your weapon. Arena Score: 0 Constructed Score: 0 Fierce Monkey Josh says: Another not-so-subtle hint about a deck type that Blizzard really wants you to be playing. Great card with great art. Scott says: It’s a beast, but that doesn’t really matter here. Mainly, it’s just a spider tank with free Taunt. Clearly a boon for Taunt Warrior. Arena Score: 4 Constructed Score: 4 Obsidian Destroyer Josh says: Absolutely brutal in Arena where removal is scarce and the tiny taunt will keep this thing alive forever. Some potential in constructed as well, and at the very least it’s an annoyance thanks to its free auto-defense. Scott says: Like Hogger, but generally better. For 1 more mana, you get +3/+3 more on the main body. The downside is that you get smaller Taunt minions, but they’re still bodies with taunt. It’ll take 3 turns to break even with total body size with Hogger, but let’s be honest — Hogger never lasted that long. A very solid addition to the Warrior lineup. Almost as good as Dr. Boom. Arena Score: 5 Constructed Score: 4 Community Question: None this week! iTunes Reviews Donations None  Card of the Week Farewell Contact Scott Lantz on Twitter What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show

Hello! Scott is on the show this week Topic: League of Explorers Review! Reasons to be happy this week News: Happy Winter Veil The Review Scale What we’re reviewing: Arena Score = The value of this card while drafting in Arena. Constructed = The value of this card when crafting the type of constructed deck that most wants this card. How the score works: 0 = Awful, unplayable (Example: Sacrificial Pact, Poison Seeds) 1 = Underpowered, but it could work out (Example: Naturalize, Divine Spirit, Corruption) 2 = Acceptable backup plan or niche filler (Example: Crazed Alchemist, Emperor Cobra) 3 = Solid value (Example: Chillwind Yeti) 4 = Great, with lots of upside (Example: Animal Companion, Knife Juggler) 5 = So good you always have to play it (Example: Dr. Boom) Neutral Cards – Common Anubisath Sentinel Scott says: As long as you have another minion on the board when he dies, he’s bananas. One of the juicier targets for Baron Rivendare and Unearthed Raptor. Make sure not to let him whiff! Josh says: Strong effect with some cool combo potentials, like Effigy secret to guarantee the deathrattle lands. Arena Score: 4 Constructed Score: 4 Fossilized Devilsaur Josh says: This card tries to be relevant, but just can’t quite pull it off. Stats are below vanilla, the requirements are tough for most classes, and the benefit (taunt) isn’t worth the hassle. Scott says: This thing is a poor man’s Ironbark Protector. Only two classes have beast decks that are even a thing, and Druid already has a strictly better version of this card. That means this is a hunter card, or a card for Arena, and I don’t think it’s very good in either case. Arena Score: 2 Constructed Score: 1 Gorillabot A-3 Scott says: Seems legit in a mech deck. Not crazy, but nice extra value in a mech deck. Effect is a little cheaper and is faster as a battlecry, but requires a mech to be in place already to trigger. Josh says: I’ll be crazy and say I think this card is absolutely crazy. Having a mech in place is no problem in constructed, and Discover favors class cards heavily, giving this even more value in something like Shaman or Rogue who only have awesome class mechs. A 100% mech deck staple. Arena Score: 2 Constructed Score: 5 Huge Toad Josh says: See ya, Bloodfen Raptor. A simple card with a small upside just to keep it relevant in the modern power levels. Scott says: Its ability is better than a kick in the pants, but hard to see where it fits into a constructed deck. Think of it as a Knife Juggler with a single (but guaranteed) activation. At least it’s a beast! Arena Score: 3 Constructed Score: 2 Jeweled Scarab Scott says: It’s a beast, so that’s a thing. A bad 2-drop, but will give you a 3-drop that shouldn’t be horrible. Josh says: Works better in classes with strong 3 drops like Druid, which conveniently cares about beasts! But, actually, 3 drops is a pretty safe card pool for all the classes. Hunter is the probably the sketchiest, which is a shame since they want beasts most. Arena Score: 3 Constructed Score: 3 Murloc Tinyfin Josh says: STOP USING CHILD SOLDIERS! Scott says: It’s a wisp. But it’s a murloc. Not enough impact to make a difference. Arena Score: 0 Constructed Score: 1 Tomb Spider Scott says: Most people beeline for Hunter with this guy, but I’m really digging Beast Druid. This goes well in that deck too! Is a slow card, but provides good long-term value, especially in beast synergy decks. Josh says: I’m in for both classes with this guy. Slightly weaker stats than the Gorilla-Bot (so it’s a bit weaker in Constructed), but it makes the trade-off for a guaranteed proc to help it in Arena. Arena Score: 3 Constructed Score: 4 Neutral Cards – Rare Ancient Shade Josh says: Best comment: “He is the best against face hunter. You will likely die before drawing the curse.” I don’t see a place for this guy. Scott says: If you’re going to use this thing, your plan needs to be to kill your opponent before you draw the curse. Therefore, you need to be a very fast deck. But how are you going to protect him with only 4 health? Arena Score: 1 Constructed Score: 1 Eerie Statue Scott says: Is a creatureless control deck a thing? Will mostly be used as a bigger Ancient Watcher that might be able to hit face on its own in rare circumstances. A great candidate for friendly silence or taunt. Josh says: Yeah, I could see Handlock or removal-heavy control decks using this card to good effect, but I’m not sure it’s better than what those decks already have. Arena Score: 0 Constructed Score: 3 Summoning Stone Scott says: Can certainly be strong, but you generally need to cast more than 5 mana worth of spells with him on the board to really be profitable. Could be interesting in a rogue deck with Master of Disguise! Josh says: There’s a lot of red tape with this one, but it’s powerful when it works and offers some fun gameplay options. Looks like a fun experimenting card to me, but I suspect it’ll end up in the Tavern Brawl-only zone. Arena Score: 0 Constructed Score: 3 Wobbling Runts Josh says: I think the numbers are misleading on this one: it’s not as good as an 8/12 for 6 mana. A 2/6 is nearly irrelevant on Turn 6 and usually dies without trading. That means you’re getting a slow, permanent Force of Nature. Should work in a swarm deck that needs bodies on the board all the time, and not much else. Scott says: Hard to evaluate, but I think it’s pretty decent. Kind of like a giant Haunted Creeper, and that guy sees consistent play. If your goal is to make sure you have units in play, this is a good choice. A good value, but very slow. Arena Score: 4 Constructed Score: 3 Neutral Cards – Epic Djinni of Zephyrs Scott says: Fun! Seems like it would go well in a Priest or Paladin deck, similar to Dragonkin Sorcerer. Works especially well with cheap card draw like Blessing of Wisdom or Power Word: Shield. Doesn’t sacrifice much in terms of stats, and has good stat allocations. Josh says: Yeah, there are some nice cheap spells in Warrior and Shaman as well that open up some nice burst combos with it as well. And you’re only losing 1 stat point for the effect! At worst, he’s a fatty lightning rod that makes your opponent worried. Arena Score: 2 Constructed Score: 4 Naga Sea Witch Josh says: This card looks like a trap. Effect can easily backfire and won’t be relevant (outside of extra hero power) until Turn 10. Pass. Scott says: Only useful for lowering the cost of more expensive spells… but how many 6+ cards are you running? Arena Score: 1 Constructed Score: 1 Neutral Cards – Legendary Arch-Thief Rafaam Josh says: There are a lot of fun, powerful top deck cards. This one looks like the most versatile one since Ysera, so I give it some value there. Any late-game deck could pull off tide-swinging shenanigans with it. Scott says: Another guy that I think is overhyped. Sure, he gives you giant artifacts. But they cost 10 mana! Too unpredictable, slow, and expensive to be reliable. Probably best in arena, where he’d be a great topdeck draw in a long game. Arena Score: 3 Constructed Score: 2 Brann Bronzebeard Scott says: Neat! Unfortunately he’s a legendary, so it’s a stretch to build a deck around him. A very strong ability, but in many cases the battlecry doesn’t make sense to double. Ooze only destroys one card, for example, and a silenced minion getting immediately silenced again isn’t very exciting. Still, an awesome fun card! Josh says: There are definitely effects that don’t double well, but so many of them do. We saw how powerful this was in the Rogue Mill deck with Antique Healbot and Coldlight Oracle. You’re only paying 1 stat for that effect, so even the smallest of procs makes this card worth it, and the value ceiling is incredible. I’m a big, big fan. Arena Score: 3 Constructed Score: 5 Elise Starseeker Josh says: Total trap card. The final effect you’re spending all game chasing is FUN and COOL, but not even guaranteed to help you. I’m usually the player that falls for this sort of fun-first card, and even I can see this is no good! Scott says: She has a half-mana premium on her body, followed by a 2 mana premium on the map. The final form makes up for that mana cost, but not when combined with the time investment and high probability you won’t see a payoff. Combine with Brann Bronzebeard for 2 maps. In constructed, this only wants to be played in the slowest of control decks, and even then, you’ll be at a disadvantage when casting it. Arena Score: 2 Constructed Score: 1 Reno Jackson Scott says: People are going crazy for this card, but I think it’s too much work. Note that it just requires that you only have 1 of each card left in your deck at time of casting, NOT your starting deck. Might be better in Arena where most cards are 1-ofs. Josh says: Definitely better in an aggro-heavy meta. I agree on the Arena value, but have seen this work too many times to discount it in Constructed. The interesting thing is that this card should get better over time, as more and more general Legendaries are worth running in your deck. Arena Score: 4 Constructed Score: 3 Sir Finley Mrrgglton Scott says: This guy’s cool! Not horrible stats, and his ability is a boon to some classes. Josh says: Whoa whoa whoa. Hold on. Let me go ahead and directly quote you from our TGT review: “You must really hate your own ability if at deckbuilding time you think that stealing another random class’s ability will be an upgrade.” What’s different here? Arena Score: 2 Constructed Score: 3 Community Question: None this week! iTunes Reviews Donations Kristoffer Amundsen – $5/month The Dust Bowl We open card packs donated by listeners, and pick our favorites and least favorites on the show! Thanks to our supporters: Jake Crawford – 7 packs! Card of the Week Farewell Contact Scott Lantz on Twitter What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show  

Hello! Bradford Grant is on the show this week Topic: Deck Battle! Reasons to be happy this week News: League of Explorers impressions What is a Deck Battle? Once a month, a guest host brings their favorite deck onto the show to battle the current reigning champion deck for control of the Happy Hearthstone Deck Battle Throne! If the challenger wins the best-of-3 series, their deck becomes the new Reigning Champion Deck and will fight off future challengers until it loses, or until it’s earned its place in the Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame! View the Deck Battle Archive + The Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame Defending Deck: Andrew’s Warlock Demon Zoo deck has reigned supreme for 5 months, and has beaten 4 decks before this episode. Challenger Deck: BradfordLee’s Mill Rogue deck looks to outlast and burn through the opponents’ deck, throwing away the key cards they need to beat you. The Deck Creatures 2x Antique Healbot 1x Big Game Hunter 1x Bloodmage Thalnos 1x Brann Bronzebeard 2x Coldlight Oracle 2x Deathlord 2x Earthen Ring Farseer 1x Novice Engineer 2x Sludge Belcher Spells 2x Backstab 2x Eviscerate 2x Gang Up 2x Preparation 2x Sap 2x Shadowstep 2x Shiv 2x Vanish Sideboard In case you don’t have some of the ideal cards, here are some quality backups and alterations you can make that keep with the same theme and strengths of the deck. 2x Refreshment Vendor 1x Assassinate 1x SI:7 Agent 1x Fan of Knives 1x Loot Hoarder 1x King Mukla 2x Deadly Poison 2x Blade Flurry The Duel! NOTE: I accidentally had my mic muted during the entire livestream, because I have no idea how technology works. Sorry! Post-Duel Commentary Who won Obligatory bragging session Challenger Deck: How well did it perform? Defending Deck: How well did it perform? Best moments in the matches The Happy Hearthstone Champion Ceremony(tm) Community Question: Glitter Beards, yay or nay? iTunes Reviews Donations No donations this week  The Dust Bowl We open card packs donated by listeners, and pick our favorites and least favorites on the show! Thanks to our supporters: Jake Crawford – 7 packs! Card of the Week Farewell Contact BradfordLee on Twitch and on Twitter What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show DECK GUIDE: Looking for a new deck type to play? Mill Rogue is a terrificly fun, creative deck that tries to win by forcing the opponent to draw too many cards and leaving them with nothing but fatigue damage. Note from Josh: The rest of this article was written by BradfordLee. Thanks! Mill Rogue This is by far my favorite deck in Hearthstone. Its core strategy and route to victory comes from using Coldlight Oracle to force your opponent to draw too many cards. Eventually, the opponent will run out of cards and being taking fatigue damage. Alternatively, in some aggro match ups, victory is obtained by continually playing Antique Healbots until your aggro opponent runs out of resources. I love Mill Rogue because every game feels like a puzzle. You have to use all of your resources just right to solve the puzzle and thus reach victory. The deck presents complex lines of play and incredible precision. If you happen to use a card too early or too late you will often find yourself unable to solve the complex puzzle presented in front of you. Let’s get straight into the cards I used in my deck for the mighty showdown with Josh. You can find a completely plain deck list on the podcast episode. Here, I’ll provide additional commentary where I feel it’s helpful or necessary. 2x Antique Healbot Antique Healbot is a win condition against face hunter decks and is a valuable late game life gain against slower or mid-range decks. Its ability to gain eight life is often enough to buy you the time you need to win. 1x Big Game Hunter I love running one Big Game Hunter in this deck. One of the biggest issues for the deck is Dr. Boom. Having a good way to hunt down a Dr. Boom is important since you don’t want to Vanish or Sap it back to your opponents hand. In the past, I ran one Assassinate in this spot but I find that I win more games with Big Game Hunter. 1x Bloodmage Thalnos Bloodmage Thalnos makes cards like Shiv and Backstab more potent and it also has the most relevant text in the game “Draw a card”. This card is not very strong in the deck and thus can be easily replaced by Loot Hoarder, Novice Engineer, or Fan of Knives. 1x Brann Bronzebeard Brann Bonzebeard is the newest inclusion to this deck. Brann + Coldlight Oracle + Shadowstep can mill your opponent for 8 cards in just one turn. He really gives this deck a needed power boost and can win you games that you previously had no chance of winning. I would say, of the the legend in this deck, he is much more important to this deck then Bloodmage Thalnos 2x Coldlight Oracle Coldlight Oracle is the glue that holds this deck together. It moves you closer to victory, facilitates card draw, and it helps you find the answers you need for any given situation. I will often mulligan to this card. The games where I have a Coldlight Oracle before turn 6 are the games that I feel I have the best chance to win. MRRRRGGGL! 2x Deathlord Deathlord is an incredible card for its cost. In the aggro match ups it can stone wall your opponent and against decks like Ramp Druid, that have a combo finish, it keeps you alive when they are ready to combo you. Also, it helps you mill your opponent when it dies. 2x Earthen Ring Farseer Earthen Ring Farseer is very important for this deck because it costs 3 mana. It allows you to play it on turn 3 as a body and it also allows you to play it on turn 6 alongside a Vanish + Preperation. Also, Earthen Ring Farseer can heal a Sludge Belcher or Deathlord that is damaged. While this utility is not commonly used it is very helpful in some circumstances. 1x Novice Engineer I only run one Novice Engineer because Bloodmage Thalnos acts like the second Novice Engineer. In the past I ran Loot Hoarder in this spot but with the introduction of Brann Bronzebeard the 1x Novice Engineer gets the node over the 1x Loot Hoarder. This card is not great but in the early game it is very nice to have a two mana draw a card effect. Additionally, In the mid to late game the low cost on this card makes it easy to cast alongside other cards in the deck. 2x Sludge Belcher Belcher, like Deathlord, gives you protection from oncoming board pressure. It is a very powerful card and can often buy you an entire turn so that you can draw into the card that you were looking for. 2x Backstab Backstab is incredibly important to any Rogue deck. Backstab offers tempo when you are behind and helps you stay ahead when you are ahead. It’s also great with your hero power to answer minions with three defense. Lastly, in this deck, it gives you the ability to not over draw. That is to say, when you are casting multiple Coldlight Oracle’s in one turn you will sometimes have too many cards in hand (i.e. 10) and will thus need to cast your Backstab just so that you have space in your hand to draw cards that are more relevant to the current state of the game. 2x Eviscerate Eviscerate is simply the best piece of removal that is available for this deck. It answers most early to mid-game threats and in the mid to late game it can keep the board clear to buy you one more turn. This is especially relevant in games where you have yet to find a Coldlight Oracle. 2x Gang Up This is the worst card in this deck but it is a key card it gives you extra copies of Coldlight Oracle and it prevents you from drawing too many cards. 2x Preparation Preparation helps you cast all of your spells for cheaper. In this deck it almost always is only used in conjunction with the spell Vanish. For instance, on turn 6 you are able to cast Coldlight Oracle for three mana then cast Preparation + Vanish for your other three mana. The play of Coldlight Oracle + Preparation + Vanish is one of the key plays in this deck. It allows you to over fill your opponent’s hand, replay your Coldlight Oracle, and Empty the board of any troublesome threats. If I could play more copies of Preparation I certainly would. 2x Sap Normally Sap’s strength is its ability to gain tempo by returning 5+ cost minions to your opponent’s hand. However, when your opponent’s hand is full (i.e. 10 cards) you have the added luxury of it just destroying the minion that you cast Sap on. This gives Sap flexibility in this deck. In my opinion, this is the best Sap deck in the game! 2x Shadowstep Shadowstep serves three roles in this deck. Role one: Against most match ups Shadowstep gives you more Coldlight Oracle battlecry abilities and thus continues you toward milling your opponent out. Role two: In some aggro match ups, namely face hunter, this bounces back an Antique Healbot and helps you gain so much life that your opponent is unable to win the game. Role three: In some circumstances shadow step allows you to return a damaged Deathlord to your hand in the early game. Generally this play is only advisable when you are currently unable to deal with a big threat entering the battlefield off of the Deathlord’s deathrattle ability. 2x Shiv Shiv is not a great card. Its impact on the game is very minimal but it warrants a spot in this deck because it has the most relevant text in the game on it “Draw a card”. Being able to dig through your deck faster creates redundancy and thus helps you draw into your Coldlight Oracles faster. This card could be replaced by Novice Engineer, Loot Hoarder, or Fan of Knives 2x Vanish Without vanish this deck would not be able to function. Vanish gives you the ability to bounce back your own Coldlight Oracles, Earthen Ring Farseers, and Antique Healbots. More importantly, Vanish clears the entire board. Outside of minions with charge a Vanish can buy you a lot of time. They should not be used frivolously as you only have two of them. If I could play 6 copies of this spell I would easily play 6 copies of it. It is also worth noting that if your opponents hand is full you can use this to destroy minions. Possible Additions Mill Rogue deck lists are trying to do something very specific. For that reason many of the cards in the deck are specifically tailored to the deck and thus are not worth cutting for other cards. That being said, there are a few flex spots in the deck and the following are some good alternatives in case you are missing some of the cards for this deck. 2x Refreshment Vendor Refreshment Vendor is a nice card for this deck because it has a solid body while also gaining you four life. It is worth noting that since this card costs four mana it is harder to use this card in combination with Vanish + Preparation. Also, unlike Earthen Ring Farseer, you cannot heal your minions. 1x Assassinate Assassinate is good in this list since you often need a nice piece of removal to deal with troublesome threats like Dr. Boom. This card could be played in place of Big Game Hunter. 1x Si7 Agent Another great card to substitute for Big Game Hunter is Si7 Agent. Basically this card is just another piece of removal that happens to have a 3/3 body attached to it. So, this serves a similar role as Big Game Hunter. 1x Fan of Knives Too many X/1’s on the ladder? Then Fan of Knives is the card for you. It slices, it dices, and it draws you cards. What more could you ask for? This card can be yours for the low low price of cutting 1x Shiv from your list. 1x Loot Hoarder In the past I have run 2x Loot Hoarder and 1x Bloodmage Thalnos. If you don’t have a Bloodmage Thalnos this is a great substitution. This card could also take the place of 1x Shiv if you don’t have access to the card Shiv. 1x King Mukla THE KING! Let’s be real… this card is Bananas. It fills your opponents hand up and that allows you to over fill your opponents hand to make your Coldlight Oracles super effective. However, I don’t run The King because it tends to be good in the match ups you are already good against and bad in the match ups that you are bad against. If The King was good against the match ups this deck struggles with, like Zoo, then I would consider running this card. Never the less, if you own a King Mukla it’s a lot of fun to play with. 2x Deadly PoisonDeadly Poison is certainly good in this deck. When you play it you generally want to play it as a 2 of in the deck to go along side Blade Flurry. Since this build doesn’t contain that package of 4 cards I wouldn’t play it. However, Blade Flurry and Deadly Poison shine in some of your bad aggro match ups. That being said, and due to the nature of this deck, I believe it is better to make your good and/or average match ups better by focusing those 4 slots in the deck on other cards. I would certainly not discount anyone for playing Deadly Poison and I still think it is an incredible card that is fun to try out in this deck. 2x Blade Flurry I personally am not a fan of Blade Flurry + Deadly Poison in Mill Rogue. There are certainly people that play both of these cards in their decks. I don’t like it because I don’t think it is necessary and neither of these cards have the words “Draw a Card” written on them. Shiv, Loot Hoarder, Fan of Knives, and Bloodmage Thalnos offer consistency for the deck and I have found that having these cards instead gives you a better chance of winning a game even though the power level of your deck is lower. That being said, These two cards are certainly fun, powerful, and good Final Thoughts If you like solving complex puzzles and enjoy the thrill of fatiguing your opponent to death, then Mill Rogue is the deck for you. It’s engaging and exciting every step of the way and with a little bit of practice you might even start having a winning record with the deck.

Hello! Nik is on the show this week Topic: BlizzCon Reasons to be happy News: EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW Hearthstone Reveals League of Explorers New cards Hands-on Story + characters Hearthstone Dev Interview It’s awesome! Go watch it! Hearthstone Tournament SPOILERS What decks they used How they played Hearthstone on the Show Floor The Hearthstone tavern Battle the devs Making friends BlizzCon Impressions Nik’s first BlizzCon Josh’s favorite BlizzCon Other Blizzard Games Cards to Discuss Murloc Tinyfin Summoning Stone Raven Idol Animated Armor Forgotten Torch Fierce Monkey Entomb Gorillabot A-3 Community Question: What is the best card you saw from the new set? iTunes Review: From the Hearthstone tavern! Donations Mikkel Weider – $2/month Card of the Week Farewell Contact Nik on Twitter or add him on Battle.net: Shipwrecked#1869. What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show

Hello! Blizzard Devs Yong Woo (Hearthstone, Senior Producer) and Erid Dodds (Hearthstone, Game Director) are on the show this week Topic: BlizzCon Reasons to be happy this week News: League of Explorers! The Interview League of Explorers Which adventurer would you team up with? Golden Monkey shenanigans Funniest new card Battle.net business cards Community Question: What are the actual odds on RNG cards like Imp-losion? No iTunes Reviews Donations Do hand-shakes from developers count? Card of the Week Farewell Contact Yong Woo on Twitter and send your messages telepathically to Eric Dodds. What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show

Hello! Matt is on the show this week Topic: Strategy Potluck! Reasons to be happy this week News: Warsong Commander nerf, BlizzCon! Organizing Fireside Gatherings Mastermind: Matt My experiences hosting Fireside Gatherings How to host your own Tips for hosting successful events Introducing WCS points + prizes The Fake Out Deck Mastermind: Dan 66% of the deck is aggro (mechs, murlocs) 33% is big fatties (Ragnaros, Klel’Thuzad) Possible to win outright with aggro, and by turn 7 they think they’ve stalled you out That’s when you start dropping the bombs and they’ve likely used all of their removal already Save The Best For Last Mastermind: Jayme It may not be intuitive, but you should play your worse minions first — even if they’re the same cost Playing the cards you card about less first will bait out the opponents’ removal That will let you play your best cards more safely later When a 1-Drop is not a 1-Drop Mastermind: Zorin I was helping my wife play Priest, and learned that Northshire Cleric isn’t always a good early drop Because you want to get more value out of it — especially on the turn that you play it, before they can react Another way to look at it: Some 1-drops have value throughout the entire game, not just at the beginning Have to always make the best choice for the factors you do know Mill Decks? Mastermind: Max I really liked playing Mill decks in Magic: The Gathering, but there doesn’t seem to be a good way to make one in Hearthstone Druid or Rogue are the best options Is there a better way to do it, like with Lorewalker Cho? How to Test Card RNG Mastermind: Josh You should test the actual odds of any RNG card you use frequently, to help you know how to best use it I’m happy with 100 test, which is actually easier to get than it sounds Build a specific deck that helps you test it faster. Include: Whatever cards you want to test, 30% card draw effects, no spell power, taunt, and heal effects Specialty cards: Lorewalker Cho (if testing spells), Chromaggus (any card), Faceless Manipulator (any card — use on Lorewalker Cho if testing spells) Play as Warlock if you can, for the card draw Play against the easy Priest AI — very little removal and very defensive Community Question: What are the actual odds on RNG cards like Imp-losion? iTunes Reviews Donations Chris Flores – $2/month The Dust Bowl We open card packs donated by listeners, and pick our favorites and least favorites on the show! Thanks to our supporters: Jake Crawford: 10 packs Card of the Week Farewell Contact Matt on Twitter and read his awesome Hearthstone articles on BlizzardWatch and his personal blog What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show

Hello! Andrew is on the show this week Topic: Deck Battle! Reasons to be happy this week News: We’re going to BlizzCon! What is a Deck Battle? Once a month, a guest host brings their favorite deck onto the show to battle the current reigning champion deck for control of the Happy Hearthstone Deck Battle Throne! If the challenger wins the best-of-3 series, their deck becomes the new Reigning Champion Deck and will fight off future challengers until it loses, or until it’s earned its place in the Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame! View the Deck Battle Archive + The Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame Defending Deck: Andrew’s Warlock Demon Zoo deck has reigned supreme for 4 months, and has beaten 3 decks before this episode. Challenger Deck: That-Other-Andrew has brought out a Taunt Warrior deck that relies on a sturdy defensive wall that sustains it through to the end-game. The Deck Creatures 2x Armorsmith 2x Acolyte of Pain 1x Big Game Hunter 2x Sludge Belcher 1x Emperor Thaurissan 1x Justicar Trueheart 2x Master Jouster 2x Sunwalker 1x Ragnaros the Firelord 1x Ysera 1x Varian Wrynn Spells 2x Execute 2x Shield Slam 2x Fiery War Axe 2x Bolster 2x Bash 2x Shield Block 2x Brawl Sideboard In case you don’t have some of the ideal cards, here are some quality back ups and alterations you can make that keep with the same theme and strengths of the deck. 2x Sen’jin Shieldmasta 2x Death’s Bite 2x Annoy-o-tron 2x Shieldmaiden 2x Antique Healbot The Duel! Post-Duel Commentary Who won Obligatory bragging session Challenger Deck: How well did it perform? Defending Deck: How well did it perform? Best moments in the matches The Happy Hearthstone Champion Ceremony(tm) Community Question: Most fun TGT deck iTunes Reviews Donations No donations this week  The Dust Bowl We open card packs donated by listeners, and pick our favorites and least favorites on the show! Thanks to our supporters: No pack donations this week  Card of the Week Farewell Contact Andrew on Twitter, Email him, or add him on Battle.net as anoverdrive#6189 What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show DECK GUIDE: Hold the line! Andrew’s Taunt Warrior deck for Hearthstone is sturdy and fun. It relies on building up solid defenses to hold out into the late-game, when big heroes drop onto the board to swing the tide in your favor. You can check it out on the latest episode of Happy Hearthstone. Note from Josh: The rest of this article was written by Andrew. Thanks, Andrew! The Taunt Warrior This deck is my own version of the taunt warrior deck that people like to play. It consists of a lot of taunt minions with high health to keep your hero safe and heaps of removal and control cards to make sure you stay in charge of the game. Let’s get straight into the cards I used in my deck for the mighty showdown with Josh. You can find a completely plain deck list on the podcast episode. Here, I’ll provide additional commentary where I feel it’s helpful or necessary. 2x Armorsmith Good early game card to establish board presence on turn 1 (with coin) or 2. Gets you early armor and gives your opponent something to deal with while you stall for your bigger cards. 2x Acolyte of Pain Another early game minion. Very annoying card for the opposition and normally draws you at least 1 or 2 cards. If they want to waste a silence on it then that’s good as well 1x Big Game Hunter Useful card to hang onto for late game to gain tempo and a quick, easy answer to big minions that manage to hit the board early. 2x Sludge Belcher Fits the taunt theme perfectly, combos well with bolster and very annoying to deal with. I prefer this over Sen’jin Shieldmasta because of the extra body it spawns, which you can also buff up. 1x Emperor Thaurissan Good turn 6 play if your hand has many cards in it. Allows more comboing as well as letting you use your hero power more often. Especially good to knock the cost of Varian Wrynn down. This lets you combo Varian with execute or shield slam in 1 turn or more if Emperor Thaurissan sticks around longer. 1x Justicar Trueheart This card is mainly in the deck for fun and to showcase some new TGT cards. However, when played in the correct situations, this card proves to be very useful. Using your hero power most turns after playing him keeps your armor at an all time high and with all the taunts and big minions this deck has your hero stays very safe and if the game takes you to a fatigue race, you will generally win. 2x Master Jouster 4 out of 5 times you will win this joust using this deck or a similar one. Majority of the minions in this deck cost 5 or higher. If you win the joust this is an extremely solid card for its cost. Even if you don’t win the joust there are worse cards out there to drop for 6 mana. 2x Sunwalker Very good vanilla minion in my opinion. Stats are well balanced and divine shield + taunt is not something to be taken lightly. 1 point less attack and health compared to Master Jouster but you get the guaranteed added bonuses. Very useful. 1x Ragnaros the Firelord Extremely powerful vanilla legendary. We all love ragnaros, let’s be honest. Applies huge amounts of pressure, especially when drawn out with Varian Wrynn. 1x Ysera Amazing if drawn out with Varian Wrynn. Otherwise a great late game card and very threatening. If Ysera Awakens is drawn, it can most of the time be used as a finisher. 1x Varian Wrynn Amazing and very fun card to play in any warrior deck. Makes it possible to get 4 beefy minions out in a single turn very cost efficiently. Worst case scenario, you are still drawing 3 cards! 2x Execute Especially good to take out minions with very high health such as opposing Ysera or other dragons. Also buffed minions that the opponent used to trade with. 2x Shield Slam This is generally considered hard removal in this deck because it is extremely easy to have 10+ armor so it basically takes out almost any minion. An easy 4 mana combo is to Shield block then Shield Slam afterward. On turn 4 this takes out most minions and gives you a tempo lead. 2x Fiery War Axe Straight up overpowered weapon and a staple in most warrior decks. Early game removal and keeps high threat. 2x Bolster Buffs up your taunt minions to help keep a stable and very solid board. 2x Bash Very good early game removal and great tempo play with the armor gain. 2x Shield Block Armor gain and card draw. Perfect for the deck. Good to play on turn 3 or 4. 2x Brawl Excellent removal if behind and especially if your opponent blew all their cards on one board. I personally prefer to have 2. If it gets to the point where 2 is too clunky then you’re generally going to win anyway in most cases. Possible Additions As stated previously this deck revolves around control and taunt so some possible additions are below if you don’t have the cards listed in the main deck. x Senjin Shieldmasta Pretty much only here to sub for Sludge Belcher for those who haven’t bought the Naxxramas expansion. Can be subbed in for other taunts as well. x Death’s bite Can be put in for removal and the whirlwind effect combos well with execute for hard removal. Good amount of attack on a weapon to control the board with. x Annoy-o-tron Very annoying to deal with. Enough said. Works well with Bolster. x Shieldmaiden Mostly subs for Justicar Trueheart. Very solid card for 6 mana. Can never have enough armor. x Antique Healbot Great card for late game. The heal is very powerful but hopefully you never really need to use it. Mainly there to sub for cards that gain you a lot of armor. Final Thoughts This is not a masterminded, perfect deck to rank up on ladder with as-is, but it’s definitely tons of fun! With a few adjustments, it could absolutely be a competitive deck for tournament play.

Hello! Scott is on the show this week Topic: The Grand Tournament Review! Reasons to be happy this week News: The expansion is out! The Review Format We want to give real, valuable insight into the cards we talk about, but there are too many cards in an expansion to do that for every one. So we picked the ones that we think are most important to talk about. This week, we’re reviewing class cards! For each class, we choose: The best card to CRAFT, DRAFT, and DUST We reviewed neutral cards last week Druid Best to Craft Darnassus Aspirant Scott says: This card’s a lot of fun, and leads to some interesting potential. If you silence it, polymorph it, or return it to your hand you get a free Wild Growth! Josh says: It blew my mind when someone described this as a Mechwarper that affects all of your cards. I’m sold! Best to Draft Mulch Scott says: I think this is very strong card. Its cheap mana cost lets you do other things the turn you cast it. Cast it late in the game on a nasty big minion for best effect. Josh says: Yeah, I don’t worry too much about the downside, especially in Arena. Removing their one big threat is a huge play. Best to Dust Astral Communion Scott says: A novelty that won’t pan out very often. Extremely inconsistent, but might be good in some Tavern Brawl someday? Josh says: Maybe there’s some discard synergy in the future, where you can draw cards when discard. But in the current game, yeah, I don’t see this ever working out. Hunter Best to Craft Bear Trap Josh says: Great stats, great scare tactics if they’re worried about Explosive Trap or Frozen Trap. Scott says: What’s not to like about a 3/3 taunt beast for 2 mana? Best to Draft King’s Elekk Josh says: We finally have a beast replacement for the boring ol’ Bloodfen Raptor! Even at 50% proc chance, this is solid value. Scott says: Hoo boy, this guy’s great! A 3/2 beast with tremendous upside. Best to Dust Ball of Spiders Josh says: I don’t get it. I see some minor synergies and a ton of RNG. There are so many things to spend 6 mana on that don’t murder your tempo. Scott says: Only useful in the slowest of slow decks. Mage Best to Craft Rhonin Josh says: He fits really well into Spell Power decks, but unlike Malygos has the inherent value to be solid in almost any Mage deck. Fun to play. Scott says: Arcane Missiles gets overlooked a lot as a spell, but getting 3 of them in hand is far better than an avenging wrath. It’s cheaper, does more damage, can be broken up over turns, gets additional spell damage boosts, and fires multiple spell triggers. And his stats aren’t bad to begin with. Best to Draft Polymorph: Boar Josh says: I love this card. Great on defense and offense, cheaper than Polymorph: Sheep! Fun fact: It resets the attack counter on your minion. I’ve won games by casting it twice on a single minion for immediate 8 damage. Scott says: Versatile? Yes. Efficient? No. Its costs are high no matter how you look at it. I am less a fan than most. Best to Dust Flame Lance Josh says: Mages already have better, cheaper ways to kill minions, that aren’t so restrictive. Scott says: The ultimate giant-killer, but I’d much rather just have a Fireball. The inability to hit your opponent sets this card back a lot. Paladin Best to Craft Murloc Knight Scott says: This little guy almost always pulls his weight. He’s a lightning rod, but that’s because he’s quite good. It’s especially fun when he makes another Murloc Knight. Fun Fact: Shaman can get this guy too from Neptulon. Josh says: Paladin is getting a lot of great tools to keep their board full, and this is the most interesting, fun one. Best to Draft Seal of Champions Scott says: Combines with a smaller minion to make a huge unexpected punch, and leaves a big-attack threat that your opponent still needs to clean up. Josh says: I’m less sold on this card due to its situational use, but it will definitely shine in some cases. Removal that leaves a threat behind the opponent has to deal with. Best to Dust Argent Lance Scott says: I do actually use this in some situations, but it’s not a good card. You’re generally better off saving for a more powerful weapon. Josh says: Paladin already has plenty of good weapons. You don’t need to gamble on a bad one. Priest Best to Craft Wyrmrest Agent Scott says: As long as you’re willing to wait to cast him until you have a dragon, he’s a great deal. Josh says:You almost always have a dragon in starting hand in a real dragon deck. 20% more stats that vanilla, plus Taunt! This guy simply breaks the usual balance. This is Blizzard telling you to play Dragon Priest. Best to Draft Holy Champion Scott says: Lightwarden and Light of the Naruu showed these effects can be quite powerful, and here it’s added to a cost-efficient body that can survive more easily. This is a scary, scary card. Josh says: Yeah, the trouble with heal-scaling cards like this previously has been that they all die to 1 or 2 cost removal. This card changes that and makes the archetype scary again! Best to Dust Flash Heal Scott says: It’s at its best when combined with spells that trigger from healing effects, or with Auchenai Soulpriest. Josh says: Priest already has too many ways to heal, and not enough safe ways to benefit from it. This just isn’t worth a card spot by itself. Rogue Best to Craft Cutpurse Josh says: It’s slim pickins on the Rogue list this expansion. This guy at least has a lot of interesting potential for trigger Combo effects, but his 2/2 stats hold him back. Scott says: The trick is being able to attack with him at least once. If you can, you’ll get a coin as a reward, which in turn will help trigger other combo effects. Makes an especially good Turn 1 (w/ coin) play if your opponent didn’t cast a 2/1. Best to Draft Burgle Josh says: I enjoy this effect. It’s worked well in Priest and should work well in control Rogue. On-paper card advantage and some fun surprise plays. Scott says: Class cards are generally pretty good, and you can’t get stuck w/ dead weapon-enhancing spells like other classes. Best to Dust Beneath the Grounds Josh says: I was super excited for this card until I learned about all the things NOT in the card text. If you mill the card, it doesn’t spawn a 4/4. They draw a new card when they draw this, so you aren’t preventing draw. So it’s meant for non-mill control rogue? No thanks. Scott says: Too many conditions! Shaman Best to Craft Tuskarr Totemic Scott says: This effect ranges from fine to great. There are currently 8 possibilities — half from the hero power and half that are from actual cards. Josh says:Yeah, and even the worst totem RNG still makes this card a great play. A lot of shaman decks just need bodies on the board. Best to Draft Totem Golem Scott says: Insaaaane. So good. Josh says: He wants to fight any minion played in the first 3 turns. And he’ll win almost every time! Best to Dust Elemental Destruction Scott says: Very expensive — basically makes you skip your next turn. And you kill your own stuff too. Not a fan. Josh says: Yeah, this card is confused. It takes the worst parts of Hellfire and Lightning Storm, combines them together, and then jacks up the mana cost. Warlock Best to Craft Dreadsteed Josh says:Fun. Fun. Fun. I really wanted this card to be viable, and I’m so glad people have found a way to make it work. This will be relevant and fun to play with for years to come. Scott says: By himself, not great. Also susceptible to silence and polymorph effects. Needs to be in a combo of some sort to be worth much. Best to Draft Wrathguard Josh says: He’s risky, and sometimes too dangerous to even play late-game. But strong board control early. Similar to a Flame Imp. Scott says: Too much of a liability IMO. Best to Dust Dark Bargain Josh says: How lucky are you feeling? You’d need to hit the jackpot on RNG every since time you played this for it to be worth running in a deck. Scott says: There may be times when this is the one card that would win you the game. But most of the time, it will be too expensive to justify. Warrior Best to Craft Alexstrasza’s Champion Scott says: Assuming it fires, this is quite good. Is Warrior Dragon a thing yet? Josh says:It’s not ready for primetime yet, but Blizzard obviously wants Dragon Warrior to be a thing. And with all the strong control cards Warrior already has, I can see it getting real big with a few more cards. Compare this to Wolf Rider! Best to Draft Magnataur Alpha Scott says: Amazing if it survives, but it’s a bit hard to kill. Can be a 3-for-1 if it lives a turn. Josh says: Hard to kill? This guy is as easy to kill as a Wrathguard, and he drops two turns later! Maybe in Arena he stands a chance of living to attack once. Best to Dust Sea Reaver Scott says: You’ve got to be pretty desperate for whirlwind effects to want one to happen outside of your control at some random point in the game. Josh says: Haha yeah, I see this effect accomplish nothing most of the time. In the right deck, it is more likely to help you than hurt you, but too out of control for the control deck that wants it. Community Question: None this week! iTunes Reviews Donations No donations this week The Dust Bowl We open card packs donated by listeners, and pick our favorites and least favorites on the show! Thanks to our supporters: Jake Crawford: 7 Packs Card of the Week Farewell Contact Scott on Twitter What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show

Hello! Scott is on the show this week Topic: The Grand Tournament Review! Reasons to be happy this week News: The expansion is out! The Review Format We want to give real, valuable insight into the cards we talk about, but there are too many cards in an expansion to do that for every one. So we picked the ones that we think are most important to talk about. This week we’re covering all of the neutral cards Look at each rarity level separately: Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary For each tier, each host chooses: The best card to CRAFT, DRAFT, and DUST Next episode: Class cards! Neutral Cards – Common Best to Craft Lance Carrier Josh says: 5 stats for 2 mana is right on Vanilla, but this gives you a lot of cool combo opportunities with tough, low-attack minions. Scott says: Lots of opportunity with the +2 attack. It has ‘haste’, and can go especially well on minions with other abilities like Divine Shield, Taunt, or Windfury. Silver Hand Regent Scott says: Cool opportunity to flesh out a weenie token deck in any class, but the Paladin synergy is especially strong. Josh says: Not a Paladin class card! Tons of fun potential here. Eek, that armor art. Best to Draft Argent Horserider Josh says: Cheap removal that leaves a body behind, or a late-game Charge surprise. Love the versatility. Scott says: The little guy that could! 3 mana is a lot to pay for such puny stats, but he packs a surprisingly strong punch. Mukla’s Champion Scott says: As long as you can target two other minions with him, he roughly breaks even. More than that, and you’re at a pretty clear profit. Can combine with other inspire minion-generators (like Silver Hand Regent) for good times! Josh says: He eats a banana while jousting? This guy is insane! Strong effect that forces your opponent to answer immediately. Best to Dust Gadgetzan Jouster Josh says: If you want those 2/3 stats on a 1-cost, there are already better, more reliable options. Scott says: Agreed. And you’d think he’d want to be in a joust deck. Except he makes joust decks worse. So his proper place, if it even exists, is rather limited. Tournament Attendee Scott says: Hey, look! They took Goldshire Footman (a card already made fun of for how bad it is) and they made it even more susceptible to hero-power removal. That doesn’t seem like a step up. Josh says: This card is named after someone not good enough to participate in the tournament! That should be a sign. Maybe in Warrior Taunt decks, but that’s it. Neutral Cards – Rare Best to Craft Fencing Coach Josh says: I don’t love this card, but there aren’t many good rares in this set. Some cool potential for next-turn combos in Hero-Power decks, though. Scott says: Keep in mind this ability will wait until you want to use it. So it can allow you to cast an inspire minion on curve and activate its ability. For some minions, this can make a big difference. Master Jouster Scott says: He ranges from slightly overcosted to insaaaane. Make sure he’s in the right deck and he’ll fire more than 50% of the time. Josh says: Yeah, when he works, he will wrestle board control from anything at its cost level. When he doesn’t, he’s still an okay body. How much do you want to rely on RNG? Best to Draft Armored Warhorse Josh says: Right after saying I’m not a fan of Joust, here’s one I’ll pick in draft! It’s slim pickings in Rares this set, but this guy is a great desperate play with huge upside when trying to close out the game or remove a big threat. Scott says: Yeah, his stats are pretty reasonable for his cost, especially if you can protect him with taunt or something. If you can manage to fire his charge, so much the better. 5 damage charge is something that would normally be very expensive. Saboteur Scott says: The effect isn’t great, but it’ll matter sometimes, especially against some classes. Given that its stats are totally on curve, the bonus is pure upside. The fewer cards your opponent has in hand, the more likely this is to prevent them from using their hero ability, especially in arena. Josh says: Tiny little Loatheb. Weird card, but against some classes, preventing the hero power can be a big deal. Be willing to “throw away” the hero-power perk and play him on curve if it’s safe. Best to Dust Mogor’s Champion Josh says: Same amount of stats as Boulderfist Ogre (same cost), but with MUCH worse distribution. And a 50% chance to screw up your plans every turn. No thanks! Scott says: What Josh said. They took a vanilla creature, made it worse, then made it worse again. Argent Watchman Scott says: In a world where it’s easy to get 2/3s with upside for 2 mana, it’s hard to understand why you’d want to have such a strong limitation on a card where that upside is one more health. This card is horrible. Josh says: You get 1 bonus stat for the huge downside here. Not even close to worth it. Neutral Cards – Epic Best to Craft Master of Ceremonies Josh says: It’s not for every deck, but in Spell Damage mage, this is a 6/4 for 3 mana. Pretty insane. The bottom isn’t that low either – 4/2 for 3 isn’t that bad. Scott says: It’s worth noting this will only fire once at most, but in a deck that has a lot of spell damage, this is certainly a good deal. Garrison Commander Scott says: Even without other hero power cards to synergize with, this can still be a strong card. Hunter, for example, wants to hit face however it can, and this allows another 2-point shot straight to the face. Rogue is really the only class where this is a total dud. Josh says: I haven’t gotten enough cards to build a real Hero Power deck, but he’s an absolute staple there. Best to Draft Kodorider Josh says: Let’s butt heads, Scott! I think this card is pretty strong, especially in a format with less instant removal on-hand. One activation puts you way ahead of Vanilla (assuming you get innate value from your hero power already). Scott says: Well, one activation is 8 mana for a 6/10 + hero power effect, which is arguable right on curve. Personally I’d rather have a Chromagnus or Kel’Thuzad. But if you can get multiple activations, he certainly gets out of control quickly. Recruiter Scott says: The thing I find interesting about this guy is that he’s the only guy who can repeatedly put minions into your hand. This can let you trigger cards like Knife Juggler, or fill the board quickly in one turn if that’s of value to you. Josh says: You’re going to have to convince me on this one, Scott. 8 total mana for 7/6 stats and a Hero Power. Seems like a slow Silver Hand Knight. Although 5 Attack/Health does seem to be the magic number this set. Best to Dust Crowd Favorite Josh says: I’ve never once said to myself, “Gee, I wish I had a crappy version of Questing Adventurer in my hand right now.” Trap card! Scott says: I feel the same way. Luckily he doesn’t start at as much of a stat disadvantage as QA, but he certainly won’t grow as quickly either. Sideshow Spelleater Scott says: You must really hate your own ability if at deckbuilding time you think that stealing another random class’s ability will be an upgrade. I could possibly see this ability on a vanilla creature, but you won’t catch me paying a 1-mana premium for it. Josh says: Pretty lame this doesn’t work against Adventure bosses. I would love to see more PVE-focused cards with effects like this. As-is, a fun trick that won’t ultimately do much. Neutral Cards – Legendary Best to Craft Eydis Darkbane Josh says: I wrote this before I opened her in my packs! I was so happy! Spider Tank body with a super powerful perk. I’ll play this in almost every control deck, even if I can’t proc it a bunch. It’s a great body that can get low killing minions and still force out removal. Scott says: Spare parts are a pretty cheap and plentiful way of activating her, but Priest, Druid, and Paladin have lots of good choices too. All upside, no downside. Worst case, you have a non-mech Spider Tank. Skycap’n Kragg Scott says: Chaaaaarge! That alone is worth the price of admission. Not sure if pirate decks are truly competitive yet, but this certainly helps step it up a notch. Josh says: The cap’n is trying to make it happen. This card feels like it’s singlehandedly trying to drag all those crappy Pirate cards into the meta. Such a strong card, but only craft it if you want to craft ALL the other Pirates too. Best to Draft Nexus Champion Saraad Josh says: Solid body and a super fun Inspire effect. Save him until Turn 7 unless you’re super desperate. Scott says: Being able to repeatedly draw a spell is pretty good, especially in decks that reward spell-casting. Since all spells are class-specific and class-specific cards are better on average than neutral minions, these will tend to be above-average cards. But like all inspire effects, it’s a bit ‘win-more’. Justicar Trueheart Scott says: Not only is he fun, but if the game drags out a bit, you’ll get significant mileage from him over time. Josh says: You’ll likely use your Hero power more in Arena. Should get lots of value out of it. Best to Dust Skeleton Knight Josh says: You should have much better things to do with 6 mana than summon an overcosted minion who has a 50% chance of making you waste your next Turn casting him again. Scott says: I don’t hate this guy quite so much — I gave him a 4 in my own set review. Yes, he’s overpriced by 1 mana per summon, but in a top-deck scenario he can easily tilt the game in your favor. Try to keep him to decks where he’s likely to win the joust. Bolf Ramshield Scott says: He’s good at helping you stay alive a little longer. But he’s bad at helping himself stay alive since your opponent can just attack your face instead of him, and take no retaliation damage. I’ve seen him used to good effect, but only in a priest deck that purposefully shored up his weaknesses through lots of healing and buffing. Josh says: Aww, now you’re just trying to make me feel bad, Scott. This was the first Legendary I opened! Community Question: Gareth: Tavern Brawl cards iTunes Reviews Donations Brett: $50 The Dust Bowl We open card packs donated by listeners, and pick our favorites and least favorites on the show! Thanks to supporters: Jake Crawford: 7 Packs Brett: 25 Packs Mike Burgess: 25 Packs Card of the Week Farewell Contact Scott on Twitter What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show

Hello! Jim is on the show this week Topic: Helpful tips for new players! Reasons to be happy this week News: The Grand Tournament is ALMOST HERE Tip #1: Follow the Rules Even though Hearthstone is supposed to be fairly simple, there are many odd situations where cards interact in unexpected ways. It’s good to be aware of these, and try to use them to your advantage! Read iHearthu’s extensive rules list Read Vivafringe’s special list of rules When in doubt, check the rule list on the Wiki Watch some awesome videos by the Hearthstone Mythbusters about tricks like how to get 8 minions on your side of the board! Our biggest surprises (discussed on the show) Tip #2: Take Your Turn Slowly It’s easy to rush, but you have 90 seconds. Use all of it. Here’s a helpful checklist to go down each time you start a turn. 1. Check for lethal damage to your opponent. 2. If any of your expected choices draw you cards, do that first. 3. Think of what your opponent can do next turn to disrupt your board and play around them. Example: The common AoE spells and their mana costs are (2)Explosive Trap, (4)Swipe + Consecrate + Hellfire, (5) Holy Nova, (7) Flamestrike. 4. If you’re winning at the moment, see if you can clear your opponent’s board. 5. If you’re left with equal options at this point, do the one that costs more mana. 6. Use your Hero Power only if you have leftover mana. It is often very inefficient use of mana. 7. Think through your whole plan again before you play anything. Tip #3: Choose the Right Time for your Minions If you play a minion that requires a choice (targeted Battlecry effect or Choose One effect), you can hit ESCAPE or select it again after placing it on the board to cancel it and put it back into your hand! Don’t play your surprise-damage minions until you can kill your opponent with it. The surprise factor is a huge part of its value, and your opponent will play differently once they know you have it on the board. Don’t cast damage spells onto your opponents’ face until it’s lethal damage either. Lull them into a false sense of security, and then nuke them all at once! Tip #4: Search out the Secrets When a Secret is on the board, your first goal is to figure out what it is without causing major damage to yourself. First thing: Pull up a list of all the Secret cards for the class you’re playing against. Then, start to play your turn. When evaluating each choice, imagine what the worst-case scenario is for what their Secret could be. Determine if the risk is acceptable. When you take an action and the Secret does NOT trigger, take note of what that tells you about the Secret. If you’ve attacked the champion and killed a troop without the Paladin Secret triggering, you know by process of elimination that it must be Repentance. Now you can play around it. When making your first tests against a Secret, play small cards and attack with small minions — just in case their Secrets affects them. Look for ways to exploit Secrets to your benefit, such as Freezing Trap putting a minion back in your hand, or Mirror Entity copying a minion you play. Tip #5: Build Your Collection the Smart Way Avoid guessing which pack to buy. Use a tool like this spreadsheet to tell you which card back will be more likely to give you cards you don’t already own. If you aren’t sure what are “good” cards to craft, look at the Most Popular Cards list on Hearthhead, Elie’s undervalued card list, or HearthArena’s Tier List. Get the most value out of crafting gold cards by focusing on cards that generate other cards! Like Unstable Portal and Piloted Shredder. Tip #6: Give Us a Quest! Daily quests actually accumulate in a hidden queue behind the 3 you can see. If you haven’t completed a quest in 6 days, you can do 3 quests in one day and then get 3 brand new quests in your log the next day! Rerolling a quest (swapping it out for a new one) resets your hidden queue! So don’t do that on the first day if you want 3 the next day. Reroll a Quest every day, even if you aren’t going to play that day. Find the quests you want to do, so they’ll be ready when you can play! Overlapping Quests (Examples: Win with Rogue or Druid / Win with Rogue or Mage) will help and can save you a lot of time, but they aren’t necessary. If you have a weird combination of quests, don’t be afraid to create unique decks to complete them! Hearthstone has a lot of secret Quests (Achievements)! It’s lots of fun knowing about them and achieving them. Tip #7: Learn How You Have Fun There are many different playstyles and ways to enjoy card games like Hearthstone. Don’t let others tell you what you have to do to have fun! Find your fun and play that way (or experiment!). We don’t all fit into the same box! Timmy – Smash your opponents with big, flashy cards Johnny – Build your own decks Spike – Win lots of games Jim’s recommendation: No matter what style you are, play silly decks every once in a while! Tip #8: Don’t Rush to Ranked Casual is a great, totally viable mode. I played only Casual for a long time. Tavern Brawl is a great new silly/fun mode every week. You have to be level 20 to play it, so try to level your favorite class to 20 ASAP so you can join in! If you just want to hit Rank 20 and get your card back each month, wait until after the first week of the month. After all the more experienced players have climbed up to higher ranks, it’ll be easier to win! If you’re into Arena, try playing that during the beginning and end of the month, when everyone is rushing into Ranked! Don’t get discouraged if you lose in Ranked! Some higher-tier players farm wins at low ranks to complete those Secret Quests we mentioned! Tip #9: Listen to Podcasts, Watch Streams, Talk to People! Jim put together a huge list of links to help you out, and even gave some short descriptions of each one! Podcasts Happy Hearthstone (Mostly casual, kid-friendly) The Angry Chicken (Casual/esports, some language) Legend of the Inkeeper (Casual, kid friendly) Well Met (Mostly esports) HearthCoach The Unstable Portal Hearthcore Livestreams Trump Brian Kibler Karma StrifeCro Mackenseize Or stream yourself and ask for advice from viewers! Beginner Guides Trump Teachings LiquidHearth’s Guides Asmodeus’ free e-book Hearthstone Players Friendly Devs Ben Brode, Designer Yong Woo, Producer Zeriyah, Community Manager Community Tony: Advice for new players with other CCG experience? iTunes Reviews Donations Jayme: Sent some awesome GenCon Hex codes! Card of the Week Farewell Contact Jim on Twitter or Twitch. Email him or add him on Battle.net as DigitalJim#1762 What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show

Hello! MYSTERIOUS Ben is on the show this week Topic: Dragon Priest Deck Battle! Reasons to be happy this week News: The Grand Tournament What is a Deck Battle? Once a month, a guest host brings their favorite deck onto the show to battle the current reigning champion deck for control of the Happy Hearthstone Deck Battle Throne! If the challenger wins the best-of-3 series, their deck becomes the new Reigning Champion Deck and will fight off future challengers until it loses, or until it’s earned its place in the Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame! View the Deck Battle Archive + The Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame Defending Deck: Andrew’s Warlock Demon Zoo deck has reigned supreme for 3 months, and has beaten 2 decks before this episode. Challenger Deck: Ben’s Dragon Priest deck goes for quick kills, but brings a few beefy dragons as late-game backup. The Deck Creatures 2x Northshire Cleri 2x Twilight Whelp 2x Faerie Dragon 2x Knife Juggler 1x Big GameHunter 2x Blackwing Technician 2x Blackwing Corrupter 2x Dragonkin Sorcerer 2x Azure Drake 1x Vol’jin 1x Emperor Thaurissan 1x Prof Boom MD 1x Onyxia 1x Ysera Spells 2x Power Word: Shield 2x Velen’s Chosen 1x Shadow Madness 2x Holy Nova 1x Light Bomb Sideboard In case you don’t have some of the ideal cards, here are some quality back ups and alterations you can make that keep with the same theme and strengths of the deck. Drakonid Crusher Volcanic Drake Shadow Word: Death War Golem Mind Control Shadow Word: Pain Dark Cultist The Duel! Post-Duel Commentary Who won Obligatory bragging session Challenger Deck: How well did it perform? Defending Deck: How well did it perform? Best moments in the matches The Happy Hearthstone Champion Ceremony(tm) Community Tom Briscoe: Dusting doubles iTunes Reviews Donations Jake Crawford: $10/month Ian Nowakowski: $5/month Leon Chen: $1/month Mike Burgess: $25 Andrew: $25 Pontus Welin: $10 Card of the Week Farewell Find Mysterious Ben on Twitter or Reddit! What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show DECK GUIDE: Kill all the things. Kill them with dragons! Our latest battle deck is all about dishing out damage with giant, scaly monsters — and bringing in the broodmothers to seal the deal late game. You can hear us talk about this deck, and watch us duel with it in episode 53 of the Happy Hearthstone! Note from Josh: The rest of this article was written by Ben. Thanks, Ben! The Dragon Priest Why should you play Dragon Priest? To put it simply, I find this deck really fun. There are always cool combos and strategy. You have to use your head, but you don’t have to run insane numbers like some Warrior decks. The more you play this deck, the better you get with it. It’s not a perfect deck, so feel free to copy as much or little as you want. Have fun with it! Creatures 2x Northshire Cleric   Arguably the best 1-drop in the game. It is almost always draws removal. People don’t want to deal with it because there are too many factors to watch. It makes the enemy think “Is he going to buff it? Is he going to attack and heal to draw a card? Is he going to drop another Northshire Cleric and heal one of my creatures?” It’s also versatile for when you use it. You could use it to bait early-game removal from a Warrior or Mage, or keep it for card-draw later. 2x Twilight Whelp At first glance, this is a very underwhelming card, so I don’t blame people asking why this is in here. (At one point, I had Shadow Bombers in this spot.) But the bonus 2 health is a big deal. People play Zombie Chow and he has the same stats, plus a chance to heal your enemy! The main problem here is that these do not activate unless you have a dragon in hand, so you obviously shouldn’t play them in a non-dragon deck. They are good because they can trade up, and if they don’t activate, they can stick around being a target for my buff cards. 2x Faerie Dragon A great filler card for really any dragon deck, it can be used to activate Twilight Whelps or Blackwing Technicians. Being untargetable by spells is useful, but not vital to this card’s value. 2x Knife Juggler In my opinio,n Knife juggler is the best 2-drop in the game. At 3/2 for 2 mana, he already passes the vanilla test. That means that his activations are pure bonus value. This deck has tons of potential synergies that can make him a gold mine of damage. 1x Big Game Hunter As much as I think he takes fun out of the game, BGH is important because he stops giants from being overpowered. He’s in this deck as an anti-Handlock card and just a general Dr. Boom killer 2x Blackwing Technician Blackwing Technician is an awesome early game card. It allows you to play more value than your opponent at the extra cost of telling them that you have a dragon in your hand. Think of it as a potentially better Spider Tank. 2x Blackwing Corruptor As I said in the show if I could play a fire elemental in every deck I would but I cant so I have this as a concealment prize and what a prize is he. the 3 damage he packs gets rid of pesky shredders and most other 3 or 4 drops (although after this expansion he may get worse with all the massive health minions) he is just a good value card and even if he doesn’t activate he is 5 damage on the table they have to remove. 2x Dragonkin Sorcerer A very strong body with great potential in decks like Paladin and Priest, which have many cards to activate off of. In this deck, it’s actually more valuable as a threat than an actual power play. Putting this on the board lets you bluff your opponents. They’ll typically remove it by trading or wasting some premium removal, which is great. That means I can play a safe Dr. Boom or Ysera later. If they don’t remove it, you can hit it with Velen’s Chosen to make it a 6/10 with +1 Spell Damage. 2x Azure Drake Another card that is pure, unadulterated value. Just being a dragon gives it synergy, but the main reason it’s here is the card draw. This deck lacks consistent draw. You have the Northshire Clerics, which you typically get 1, maybe 2, cards from if you’re lucky. And you have Power Word: Shield for 1 draw. Having 2 more card-draw minions may not seem like much, but they effectively make your deck thinner if you play them on curve, and having 6 less cards in your deck makes it a lot more chance that you will draw your combos. Plus, with a 4/4 body they can take and give a solid beating in midgame. 1x Vol’jin Vol’jin is my favorite legendary to come out of Gobins Vs Gnomes. A 5 mana 6/2 sounds really bad, but his ability to swap health with any minion makes him so valuable. Take out the enemy doom sayer with a swap and then a lesser minion you already had on the board. He’s effectively a specialized Power Word: Death that can hit Ysera and Malygos. On turn 10 and up, you cano drop him and then Holy Nova to kill their bomb. 1x Emperor Thaurissan Emperor Thaurissan is a very strong card. He has the potential to run away with the game and look outright broken. If you hit any one of the combos with him, it gets playable. If you hit 2 or more, it becomes extremely strong. He will almost always be your 6-drop if you can, but he’s great bait for the opponent’s premium removal anytime. 1x Dr Boom Just like the BGH I don’t really like him and I don’t have much to say except that his value makes him so strong. You are behind, even before the game starts, if you don’t have him in our deck. The only realistic way of dealing with him is with Light Bomb to get rid of his bots. And even then, you can potentially get 8 damage to the face. He also has great synergy with our Knife Juggler. 1x Onyxia I don’t think Onyxia has ever been mentioned on the show. I think this is where she gets her power: absolutely no one expects to see her. If you combo her or a Knife Juggler, they become the 10/11-mana combo to summon an 8/8, a 3/2 and 5 1/1’s and deal 6 random damage. She’s not a vital card, but just really fun. 1x Ysera Ysera is my favorite Legendary dragon. She has so much value for every turn that she’s on the board. Her ability is crazy. All of the cards she gives are really strong. In a top-decking situation, she will hands-down win you the game. Plus, she can’t be Killed by the 3-mana fun-killer that is Big Game Hunter. Surprise: If you look at the card art, she’s a dragon who has people hands! That has to count for something, right? Spells 2x Power Word: Shield   A really high-quality cycling card (replaces itself when played) that gets you more health so you can survive a trade and then use your Hero Power to get some health back. It’s the perfect buff for the Dragonkin Sorcerer. This is a Priest staple that should have 2 copies in every deck. 2x Velen’s Chosen A really strong spell that’s allowed to be strong because it’s a class card. If you Northshire Cleric on turn 1, and then drop this on turn 2, you’ll be laughing. A 3/7 is not easy to remove! It also combos really well with Dragonkin Sorcerer and Holy Nova. The only real drawback is that it’s a dead card when top-decking. 1x Shadow Madness A largely unseen card for a while that’s slowly getting more play. Shadow Madness is great for dealing with Warlock zoo and face Hunter decks. It feels really good to kill their Defender of Argus-ed imp with their own Voidcaller! 2x Holy Nova Another staple priest card. Can be used with Northshire for massive card draw, Azure drake for high damage AoE spell, with Vol’jin for killing sticky legendaries and even by itself for good damage and good healing. 1x Lightbomb A fantastic board clear! One of the best cards to help you come back from behind. It’s also a perfect anti-Handlock card for dealing with giants and Mal’Ganis, and is one of the only consistent ways to deal with Grim Patrons. Possible Additions Like I mentioned earlier, the deck list is pretty specific because the deck revolves around playing Dragons and the cards that are affected by them. That being said, there are a few cards you can swap in until you get the stuff you need. Drakonid Crusher A very strong and fun card to play. Back when this was a zoo deck, I had 2 and they were my late game Dragons. They can be played as 9/9 or 6/6, which gives them the bonus strength of letting you choose if you want to make a Big Game Hunter target or not. Swap for Ysera or Onyxia. Volcanic Drake Another card in my original build, back when it was zoo and I did not want to play Dr Boom. Volcanic drake is a strong card that, when played corectly, can come down on turn 4 giving you huge board swing. Swap for Dr Boom and Emperor Thaurissan to make the deck faster. Shadow Word: Death A Replacement for Vol’jin, while also being a good quality piece of premium removal. It should be in most decks and the only reason I don’t have one is because this deck is experimental. War Golem Not an amazing card, but it gets the job done. Pretty good stats and can be strong when played on curve. Swap for Dr Boom or Onyxia. Mind Control One of my favorite cards in the game and extremely good value. It not only destroys the opponent’s minion, but also summons a copy of it for you. If you don’t have a fancy Legendary card, just use your opponent’s! I’m upset that there’s no room for it in my deck. Only play one, because it can be a dead card if there are no big targets or if you need it on turn 8 or 9 to stay alive. Swap for Ysera. Dark Cultist In my opinion, this is the best 3 drop in the game. The only reason it’s not in my deck is because it’s not a dragon. If you wanted, you could swap it for Shadow Madness or any other early minion you don’t have. Shadow Word: Pain Another high quality card that I just didn’t have room for. It gets rid of Armorsmiths and Acolytes of Pain without doing damage to them. Or early-game demons and pesky taunts. Swap for Shadow Madness or any other early game minions you don’t have when you’re facing a lot of rush decks. Final Thoughts This is an intricate deck with many nuances that needs to be played many times to understand. It has an above 50% win rate on early-to-mid ladder rankings, but I think that — when it comes down to it — unless a deck is fun to play, there’s no point in playing it. Let me assure you that this deck is fun! You won’t win every time, but you will pull off an Onyxia Knife Juggler combo and have an 11/21 Dragonkin Sorcerer, and Light Bomb an entire board of Grim Patrons! You will feel great and that’s what Hearthstone is about.

Hello! Ryan is on the show this week Topic: Arena Tips! Reasons to be happy this week News: Tavern Brawl, Argent Tournament Announcement Arena Basics Arena is fundamentally different from constructed play in that you don’t build your deck from your personal collection, but rather choose cards one at a time from three options drawn from the entire card pool. Because of this, you’ll encounter cards not commonly played in constructed and be able to pick cards you don’t personally own. This means the strategies and tactics here are different, which calls for different tactics! Removal is generally scarcer and the powerful finisher combos seen in constructed cannot usually be drafted. This usually leads to a slower game in which value plays leading to card advantage are often the deciding factor in winning. Tip #1: Getting Ready for Arena Get all classes to level 10. If you don’t have a basic understanding of the classes, you will be surprised by your opponent’s play and will play into board clears like Consecration (4) or Flamestrike (7). Buying packs (100g) vs. buying Arena (150g) Arena currently only offers Goblins vs Gnomes packs as a reward, so buying classic packs is better if your goal is to build decks for constructed. If your classic collection is mostly fleshed out, Arena is better value. For 50 more gold, you have a chance to earn additional gold, dust, cards, even an extra pack! 7 wins gives at least 150g (infinite arena), 3-5 wins is break even point, rewarding a pack plus around 50 gold on average. Tip #2: Choosing the right Hero! Your most comfortable class when in doubt: Mage, Paladin, Priest All are viable with decent drafts and good play (I have 12 wins with Warrior, Rogue and Hunter) Tip #3: The Lingo We Use Value: Cards that are independently good (Spider Tank) or affect the board state (Stormpike Commando/Frostbolt). Win more: Cards that are reliant on synergy or specific board states to be used effectively (Enhance-o Mechano/Bloodlust) Curve: How many cards in total you have in each Mana cost. Why it matters – If you have something to play on curve every turn and your opponent does not, you will be ahead on the board. Missing turn 2 or 3 gives the initiative to the opponent. Drop: A minion card that can be played onto an empty board the turn that matches its mana cost. Like Senjin Shieldmasta. A Fireball for 4 mana is ideally not played on turn 4. So when talking about how many “drops” you have at a given mana slot, you don’t count situational spells or minions (Big Game Hunter is not a 3 drop). Tip #4: Drafting 101 Start by picking “best” cards regardless of mana cost for the first 10 picks. Re-evaluate at 10/15/20/25 picks in. When you have a tough decision, choose the one that fills a hole in your curve. Towards the end of the draft you might pick a mediocre card over a “better” one if you are lacking early or late game. Currently the Arena meta is rather aggressive. One and Two drops are very powerful so draft them or have way to slow them down. This is because you are guaranteed the early game but not late. You might not live until Turn 8 to play your Ironbark Protector. How many spells ideally, compared to minions? It depends on what spells (weapons are basically spells). Can you have too many Fireballs or Flamestrikes? Probably not, but it depends what the other options are. You want at least 1 or 2 AOE spells and a few big target removal spells, if they can also be used for burst finishing, that’s a bonus. Know which type of deck you drafted: Fast, mid, or slow Tip #5: Mulligan Do you have the Coin? You want a turn-two drop! Turn-one drop also, if you drafted enough. Take the board or fall behind. Curve out. ex: (1-2-3) | (2-3-4) w/coin: (2-2-3) | (2-4-4) |(3-3-4) Keep removal? Watch opponent’s mulligan, also depends if you already have 1 or 2 drop. Tip #6: Early game o coin or not to coin, that is the question… Coin on turn 1 only if you have a turn 2 play to follow it up or to remove a snowballing minion like Whirling Zap-o-Matic. Obtain board control without playing into AOE board clear Play value minion each turn Tip #7: Face vs. Board Control What is the win condition of your deck? Can you win a control (slow) game? Just because you or opponent are below 10 health doesn’t necessarily mean it’s over! Play to win vs. play to not lose: If playing against a slower deck and you are running out of cards, you probably need to try to finish the game, otherwise their bigger minions will crush you. The longer the game goes on, the more likely you will lose. When playing a against faster deck, if you can stall the game out, they will run out of cards and your big minions will be uncontested. You will gain a feel for this as you play more games. Tip #8 More Resources Drafting/Statistics: Hearth Arena In-Depth Guide: Icy Veins Watch Streamers: Trump, Kripp Community Donations: Jayme ($30), Falana ($5/month) Question: Which cards to dust? iTunes Reviews: We read German (terribly) Card of the Week Farewell Send Ryan a message on Twitter and listen to his friend’s WoW podcast (Explicit) What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the showp=

Hello! Jayme is on the show this week Topic: Warrior Mech Grim Patron Deck Battle! Reasons to be happy this week News: Tavern Brawls What is a Deck Battle? Once a month, a guest host brings their favorite deck onto the show to battle the current reigning champion deck for control of the Happy Hearthstone Deck Battle Throne! If the challenger wins the best-of-3 series, their deck becomes the new Reigning Champion Deck and will fight off future challengers until it loses, or until it’s earned its place in the Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame! View the Deck Battle Archive + The Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame Defending Deck: Andrew’s Warlock Demon Zoo deck has reigned supreme for 1 month, and has beaten 1 deck before this episode. Challenger Deck: Jayme’s Warrior Mech Grim Patron deck combines the best of mech consistency with the explosive Grim Patron combo Warrior is famous for right now. The Deck Creatures x 2x Warbot (1 mana) x 2x Cruel Taskmaster (2 mana) x 2x Mechwarper (2 mana) x 2x Harvest Golem (3 mana) x 2x Spider Tank (3 mana) x 2x Warsong Commander (3 mana) x 2x Screwjacnk Clunker (4 mana) x 2x Piloted Shredder (4 mana) x 2x Antique Healbot (5 mana) x 2x Grim Patron (5 mana) x 1x Grommash Hellscream (8 mana) Spells x 2x Execute (1 mana) x 2x Fiery War Axe (2 mana) x 1x Commanding Shout (2 mana) x 2x Revenge (2 mana) x 2x Death`s Bite (4 mana) Sideboard In case you don’t have some of the ideal cards, here are some quality back ups and alterations you can make that keep with the same theme and strengths of the deck. x Gnomish Inventor (4 mana) x Tinkertown Technician (3 mana) x Mechanical Yeti (4 mana) x Whirlwind (1 mana) Post-Duel Commentary Who won Obligatory bragging session Challenger Deck: How well did it perform? Defending Deck: How well did it perform? Best moments in the matches The Happy Hearthstone Champion Ceremony(tm) Community No donations No questions iTunes Reviews Card of the Week Farewell Send Josh your comments/questions for the elusive, mysterious Jayme! What you want to see in future episodes What hosts you want to visit the show DECK GUIDE: What do you get when you merge the spontaneous chaos of a Grim Patron deck with the stability and early pressure of a mech deck? Pissed robots looking for a fight! Note from Josh: The rest of this article was written by Jayme. Thanks, Jayme! Mech Patron At its core, this is a Grim Patron Warrior combo deck that uses Warsong Commander to deploy Patrons in a quick and surprising way. However, the combo is hidden into a standard Mech deck, which has great tempo plays on the early turns to gain you some board control or just flat out win before needing the Patron combo. Let’s get straight into the cards I used in my deck for the mighty showdown with Josh. You can find the simple Mech Patron deck list on the podcast episode. Here, I’ll provide additional commentary where I feel it’s helpful or necessary. 2x Execute Super cheap removal that I use for large Taunt minions, or pesky Legendaries that need instant answering. Fairly easy to trigger the damaged condition with the cards in the deck. 2x Warbot Best played on turn 1. He’s not going to do too much damage, but he’ll be great for knocking out early minions, and at 3 health, he’s resistant to enemy hero powers. 2x Fiery War Axe One of the best turn 2 plays, you`ll get enemy minion removal out of this card. Worthy mulligan target. 1x Commanding Shout This card is something that not a lot of other Patron Warrior decks run, but I think it`s potential outweighs the risk of it becoming a dead card in your hand. You`ll almost always gain board advantage for using it and, at the very least, it draws a card to replace itself. 2x Revenge While other Warriors may prefer the cheaper Whirlwind, I find the extra mana investment in Revenge allows us to use it as a board-clear in late game losing situations as well. Due to our lack of AOE, Revenge fills that critical role. 2x Cruel Taskmaster This guy is perfect for activating Patrons, removing 1-health enemy minions, or triggering your Grom Hellscream. He`s also decent when paired with an Acolyte of Pain or a Warbot. 2x Warsong Commander The linchpin to making this deck a credible threat. Never deploy her on a board without a combo piece. She`s just too valuable and vulnerable. 2x Death`s Bite Great turn 4 play as it can take care of any midrange threats you may be up against. Time the Deathrattle effect to take maximum advantage with Patrons, Acolytes, or Grommash. 2x Screwjank Clunker His surprising Battlecry will almost always allow your early Mech drops to trade up and take out higher cost enemy minions. A 2/5 body is also good at two-for-one’s against early minions or removal as well. 1x Grommash Hellscream The big finisher, when you need it. 10 damage to the face is pretty much where you want to be, with this guy. 12 damage when paired with a Taskmaster. Boom! 2x Mechwarper The key to an accelerated opening, Mechwarper is incredible for his cost, and can let you drop your midrange minions early and often. Mulligan target. 2x Harvest Golem One of the best 3-drops in the game, for similar reasons to the Piloted Shredder. Having minions stick on board after they’ve been killed gains you tempo on an opponent’s turn, and that is great value. 2x Spider Tank Great stats for this Mech, his big body means he’s usually taking out opposing 3-drops with ease, and living to fight again. 4 health takes him out of range of Frostbolt, Quick Shot and a lot of the early removal spells that are popular. 2x Piloted Shredder One of the best 4-drops in the game, this guy is a credible threat with staying power as he phones in a friend when he’s kaput. 2x Antique Healbot His sole job is to keep you alive long enough to combo. But at best, he Charges into battle off a Warsong for a trade. 2x Grim Patron The secret weapon of the deck. Play him with a combo, or don`t play him at all. Simply, losing a 5-cost 3/3 to a Frostbolt is your worst nightmare. Possible Additions I also used these cards while testing the deck. Go ahead and try swapping some of these in there, if you have them. See if they work better for you than they did for me. Bouncing Blade In theory, this card should totally work in this combo style deck. However, I found it’s complete randomness to be more of a pain than a boon. It combos extremely well with Commanding Shout and Grim Patrons though. And against a big solo drop, it will kill pretty much anything. This is more of a sideboard than a substitution card. Tinkertown Technician Great value with the Mech ability trigger. However, I prefer the Spider Tank as it doesn’t require the set up cost. Mechanical Yeti Swap him in for Screwjank Clanker if you don’t have them. He’s a great body for the cost, with some Spare Parts upside that makes him better than a Chillwind Yeti. Whirlwind I think most standard Patron Warrior lists run this in favor of Revenge, but I opted for the latter for it’s more toolbox ability of getting me out of a jam. Swap out for Revenge if you don’t have them, though. Essential to have this sort of effect. Final Thoughts If you like surprising combos that result in almost unbeatable board-states, then you should consider my Mech Patron decklist. It can be vulnerable to board clears, like all minion-heavy decks. But the steady tempo backbone will build you some good early control through profitable trades, and can help survive until you can unleash your combo. I’m not even a Warrior player, as I primarily play Shaman, Priest, Druid. But this Grim Patron card came out in Blackrock Mountain expansion and I just had to make this deck. It’s super fun, very powerful and it’s really funny when the “Everyone, get in here!” chains off a bunch of times.